Windy Day Causes Damage In River Valley

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Windy conditions caused damage to several local areas Thursday (Feb. 20), as a power line went down in Fort Smith. The line went down at the Randall Ford Dealer in the 6400 block of Rogers Avenue.

“The wind was just insane it about blew me over a few times,” said Fort Smith resident Kristine Eddy. “The tin car ports and stuff were going to start flipping over. I was underneath one at one point, and it just started lifting up off the ground.”

Eddy continued, “I was like, ‘Oh, my God. We are going to die.'”

Also on Rogers Avenue, the wind left a billboard ripped and damaged.

One eastbound lane was closed, and traffic was diverted.

Fort Smith police and the Fort Smith Fire Department responded to the site and began dealing with the downed power line, while waiting for the Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company to come repair it.

A local gas station employee, Shawn Bogner, said he lost power for two hours during his shift.

“Everything was out of order,” said Bogner. “The machines were down, and we still took cash, with people coming in paying cash.”

OG&E Electric Company said roughly 690 outages across the region were reported due to the wind.